As stupid as ever, but surprisingly clever.
You Don't Mess With The Zohan (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:177
Fresh:64
Rotten:113
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: You Don't Mess With the Zohan features intermittent laughs, and will please Sandler diehards, but after awhile the leaky premise wears thin.
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $100,018,837
Synopsis: Dennis Dugan (BIG DADDY, HAPPY GILMORE) directs this comedy co-written by Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, and Robert Smigel. Disco- and hummus-loving Zohan (Sandler) is the Israeli army's best weapon.... Dennis Dugan (BIG DADDY, HAPPY GILMORE) directs this comedy co-written by Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, and Robert Smigel. Disco- and hummus-loving Zohan (Sandler) is the Israeli army's best weapon. He can single-handedly take out terrorists and swim like a dolphin, and still find time to charm the ladies. But this lethal weapon is tired of fighting Palestinian terrorists like the Phantom (John Turturro). He has bigger dreams: he wants to cut and style hair. Unfortunately, once Zohan arrives in New York City with a new look straight out of the 1980s and an assumed identity after faking his own death, his lack of experience gets him laughed out of salon after salon. Finally, Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a Palestinian salon owner, gives him a shot, and the older patrons love him. But just as Zohan is hitting his stride, Salim, a Palestinian New York City cabbie (Rob Schneider) recognizes him, and suddenly the Zohan's dream is in jeopardy. To confuse matters more, there is a Trump-like developer (Michael Buffer) who is trying to clear out the Manhattan neighborhood where Israelis and Palestinians peacefully coexist in order to build a mall. A bulked-up Sandler is amusing as Zohan, and this is Schneider's best performance in years. Despite the extreme stereotyping, there is an underlying message about the futility of war and fact that people really are, after all, just people. The film is peppered with brief appearances from a menagerie of celebrities, including Chris Rock, Dave Matthews, Charlotte Rae, Kevin James, John McEnroe, Mariah Carey, George Takei, and Bruce Vilanch. Lainie Kazan and Nick Swardson also star in this film as a mother and son who befriend the new immigrant. [More]
Starring: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson
Starring: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson, Lainie Kazan, Rob Schneider
Director: Dennis Dugan
Director: Dennis Dugan
Screenwriter: Robert Smigel, Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow
Producer: Adam Sandler, Jack Giarraputo
Composer: Rupert Gregson-Williams
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Reviews for You Don't Mess With The Zohan
There are a handful of legitimately funny jokes, even though -- though it frightens me to say so -- I don't get as excited as I got when I was fifteen.
The script has a couple of actually funny gags, but hack director Dennis Dugan messes up the delivery in service to Sandler's titanic ego.
If "Munich" is the disease, the Zohan is the cure. Some hard little grains of truth make this Sandler's funniest movie since "The Waterboy."
Sandler's unflappable Jewish gigolo superhero hairdresser act is an overconceptualized drag.
Director Duggan serves up a scattershot satire that is about as funny as a Palestinian landmine at an Israeli kiddie birthday party. Broad, offensive and thinly veiled...
This moviegoer has no trouble with lowbrow comedy. The problem with Zohan, however, is that it’s like a kid who tells you a silly joke, gets a laugh, and immediately tells the same joke again.
I’m all for politically incorrect humor, but there has to be humor in the political incorrectness, and I didn’t get it here.
When it's funny, it's very, very funny, but when it's bad, it's downright awful.
For all its flaws, Zohan remains a tolerable if inane piece of entertainment that scores points for trying...
despite all of the film's problems, there are still plenty of very funny moments and Zohan is one of Sandler's more enjoyable characters.
When I think of movies that have a locker-room mentality I think of movies like this one, another sleazy, dirty-minded offering from Adam Sandler.
There are really only four jokes in the movie, and each of them goes from being pleasantly goofy to positively leaden as the film's needlessly protracted running time unspools.
"Zohan's" first hour may well be the strongest stretch of any Sandler comedy. But, in its second half, the film's humor takes a backseat in favor of a heavy-handed plea for Mideast peace. A noble goal, of course, but not a very funny one.
Isn't all that different from any number of old Adam Sandler pictures. That's to say that it's not very good, and you probably won't find it terribly funny.
You Don't Mess With the Zohan tries to mix high-brow satire with low-brow gross-out humor. The combination kills the story's pacing.
The movie has surprisingly little energy. Sandler seems to think all he needs to do is talk in a phony middle-eastern accent to generate laughs, but what he's saying should also be funny too, right?
Latest News for You Don't Mess With The Zohan
October 05, 2008:
This counter-terrorism satire is its own worst enemy. Especially whenever Sandler's whining geek turned combo swaggering assassin hair stylist's too-much-information bulging prosthetic crotch pops up. ![]()
More...
August 19, 2008:
Arab Censors Mess With The Zohan ![]()
In a move that will leave some American filmgoers seething with jealousy, censors in Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates have banned Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess With... More...
August 16, 2008:
NewFilmReview: This counter-terrorism satire is its own worst enemy. Especially whenever Sandler's whining geek turned combo swaggering assassin hair stylist's too-much-information bulging prosthetic crotch pops up. ![]()
More...
July 13, 2008:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Moody Superheroes Rule the Box Office
Hellboy II: The Golden Army nudges Hancock out of first place while Murphy debuts as the summer's biggest flop. More...
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